Archive: 12 posts

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Hello all, I've been busy since my last arena project with something I believe is completely new to LBPK, and here's a quick peek of my progress. PLANNED OR ENACTED FEATURES Two teams (the Squad and the Infected) face off to either cure or infect the other teams The game ends when one team is completely infected or cured Team gameplay with a twist: when you lose all your health, you switch teams. This will be displayed on your HUD, leading to some seriously nail-biting battles as your team claims victory or succumbs to the hoard. Each team "class" has unique abilities and movement: for instance, the Infected have close range, speedy attacks and can see in the dark, whereas the Squad have slower movements, limited eyesight but longer ranged weapons Certain perks are granted to each team: the Infected can move through vents on walls whereas the Squad have clearance for bay doors Big emphasis on stealth and teamwork, each class requires finesse to play effectively Multiple "ending" scenarios, with each team receiving a victory movie Random pickups that grant unique special moves, such as a spreader shot for the Squad or the "Metal Gear Solid Box" for the Infected Tons of places to hide and blind spots galore, this game will put you on the edge WIP SCREENSHOTS Map layout: very tight with lots of blind spots. Each team will have their own unique "zone". http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_5.JPG Map detail: designed to be a kind of underground military facility. Note the vent hole (unfinished) that allows the infected to move through walls. http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_4.JPG Squad gameplay: You have very limited viewing range as this team with only a single spotlight, I really want to play up and manipulate light in this game. As the Squad, light is your best weapon. http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_3.JPG Infected gameplay: You have much greater visibility as this team and are effectively invisible as you hunt from corridor to corridor. http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_2.JPG Infected gameplay: A better detailed shot of the vents. Since I've taken this photo I've added sliding vent doors that only open for the Infected and a change in camera angles once you enter. Think the Batman Arkham series and your close to the feeling I wanted. http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_1.JPG This will be my most complex work yet with a lot of logic and features, what do you guys think so far?

2013-02-25 16:52:00 Author: Hiroshige0 Posts: 114

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It's similar to the CS Zombie mod. Anyway this is something new on LBPK and I like new things. Sounds like a very interesting project, can't wait to see the final version!

2013-02-25 17:15:00 Author: Schark94 Posts: 3378

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Your right, I know some other games a have applied the "infected" concept, just never seen it here. One particular part I'm scratching me head over though is applying teams to a level where everyone is on the same team. Confused? Let me explain. The problem I ran into this concept is that there is effectively no way to switch a person's team on the fly. Sure I could swap their abilities and such, but if your team is going to lose, why would you help the other team when you got infected/cured? So to compensate, I'm attempting to mimic team functionality by making everyone on the same team and making your success based on your own personal score, so: You got infected/cured: -250 points You infected/cured others: +250 points This way, I can still have the game ended when everyone is on the same "team" and still allow players to get high scores. There's still a few problems here though: I don't know yet how to mimic friendly fire options. I had though that applying tags to weapons would work and then detecting that based on an impact/weapon sensor, but that's some heavy theory methinks. Battle A.I. Never mind that they'd have a potentially horrible time navigating vents and doors, but I'm unsure how to get them to recognize their team as friends and not shoot them in the face. I'll have to see what options battle brains give me.

2013-02-25 17:32:00 Author: Hiroshige0 Posts: 114

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Really elaborate! I like it!

2013-03-02 23:07:00 Author: Remy Posts: 252

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Heh, it's becoming too intricate now. I decided to focus this time around on gameplay development first instead of level design, and this is the logic so far for a single spawn: Main class logic and weapon effects: http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_13.JPG Powerup logic via controlinator: http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_14.JPG I am starting to reach a point where I'll have to either reduce the amount of players or reduce the size/complexity of the arena, or both. The logic shown here literally represents about two thirds the stage's thermo when applied to eight players. It's so much I can't show all the wires in a single screenshot! Good news is that it's all wicked cool. Since my last post, I have: Created two powerups for each class (shown below) Added stealthy new options, such as camera shifts to FPS when an infected enters a vent Full health bar, powerup symbols, and status indicators for the health of your team Custom karts with unique properties per class New Screenshots: Custom Karts http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_6.JPG A squad kart firing a few "cure bolts" http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_7.JPG An encounter with the infected. Because the light will be so dim and the infected move so fast, keeping a bead on them is very difficult http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_8.JPG The first powerup, gives you night vision abilities for about 20 seconds http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_9.JPG The second powerup generates a shield that not only damages enemies around it, but also heals health the longer you stay inside http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_10.JPG The first infected power up drops a "goo trap", a booby trapped powerup. If a squad player touches this, they will be harmed AND slowed down. Great for ambushes. If the infected player touches it though, he is given two units of health. http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_11.JPG The second infected powerup generates a fake crate (and useful shield) around the player. They can use it to hide amongst other crates and debris to pull off sneaky attacks. While they can still move with it though, going too fast will break the box. http://bwctesting.com/lbpk/rise_infectors/preview/lbpk_ri_12.JPG I've been learning a lot of the usefulness and limitations of tags on this project plus some really advanced logic concepts and HUD tweaks. Still lots to do, but I'm really liking where this is heading.

2013-03-03 03:54:00 Author: Hiroshige0 Posts: 114

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Update! This project has been more or less shuttered until I feel like enduring more pain. Ran into severe trouble trying to get custom weapons with custom hit detection to work on custom karts. If anyone has greater insight on how to cause a player to detect being hit (but not stunned or killed) via tags/sensors that is reliable, I'm all ears.

2013-06-10 17:33:00 Author: Hiroshige0 Posts: 114

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Wow, this looks amazing, hope you're still working on it! Update! This project has been more or less shuttered until I feel like enduring more pain. Ran into severe trouble trying to get custom weapons with custom hit detection to work on custom karts. If anyone has greater insight on how to cause a player to detect being hit (but not stunned or killed) via tags/sensors that is reliable, I'm all ears. Tag specific impact sensors coupled with coordinated tagged weapons that don't have a danger tweaker? Firstly, I'm not an expert and I don't know if making an object into a weapon automatically makes it stun or kill, or if that comes from a danger tweaker. So this would largely hinge on weapons deadliness coming primarily from the object's tweakers. If the act of weaponizing has these effects in it, then it's much more complicated, if even possible. Maybe an invisible hologram shell just outside the custom kart's hit box that's separate from the kart (if possible) with a weapon impact sensor that registers the weapon tag - so that weapon will strike the "wall" right outside the kart and not affect player, but still register an impact.

2013-07-24 20:00:00 Author: StJimmysAdiction Posts: 388

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Maybe an invisible hologram shell just outside the custom kart's hit box that's separate from the kart (if possible) with a weapon impact sensor that registers the weapon tag - so that weapon will strike the "wall" right outside the kart and not affect player, but still register an impact. This... this is brilliant. Gonna try that tonight. If it works, you have just single-handily saved this project. EDIT: So I remembered why I didn't do this in the first place; blast sensors have no tagging ability. I had tried earlier to use impact sensors (which do have that option) but for whatever reason, weapons do not technically count has impactable objects. This was the setup I had tried: Attach class specific tags to each weapon Attach an impact sensor tagged to the correct class on the spawn Attach a piece of force field material as an impact detector to the kart Using this setup, no weapons will register damage. I had considered attaching an impact sensor directly to the kart force field (to offset possible "include rigid connections" shenanigans), but then I'd have to get into some very tricky transmitter/receiver setups and at best, I'd be wasting a lot of thermo. The setup I had before this (and has proven to work but is very unreliable) is this one: Attach a weapon blast sensor to each weapon and wire it to a tag Attach a tag sensor to a spawn and have it detect the correct tag when said weapon impacts The problem with this setup is that that it requires that I have the sensor radius just big enough to register the impact but small enough that, say other players are not effected too when your hit. The addition of a force field bumper may be a game changer though since it forces all weapon hits to have a specific physical radius around the kart, and there might be a few ways that I could filter out "false" impacts (by using an impact sensor/blast sensor and the tag sensor on an AND gate) so that only those directly hit by a weapon would work despite the range of the tag sensor being very large. Lots more testing to do, thanks!

2013-07-24 21:52:00 Author: Hiroshige0 Posts: 114

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filter out "false" impacts (by using an impact sensor/blast sensor and the tag sensor on an AND gate) so that only those directly hit by a weapon would work despite the range of the tag sensor being very large. That seems like it would work wonderfully to me. I didn't consider weapon impact sensors not having a tag selection. Suppose the developers never considered it as something someone would ever need... while the style isn't exactly unique (mostly seen in FPS zombie or infected games) I've never seen it done in a kart battle before! I hope it works out, I'm quite excited to play this!

2013-07-26 17:09:00 Author: StJimmysAdiction Posts: 388

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So there is some very interesting hit detection issues here, and it all seems to go back to what appears to be a lack of blast detection. I've set up a bunch of consistent, repeated weapon tests and I've made a couple of observations: 1. It seems that when a weapon's hit effect is set to none, weapon blast sensors no longer apply OR the combination of that along with a custom kart creates the problem. This happens regardless of whether I use a force field bumper or not. 2. If this is the case (and all evidence says it is) then using blast sensors as a means of filtering out "false hits" is not gonna work. Impact sensors exhibit the same issues as well. There was a bright spot here though; I found that if I applied a tag sensor and changed its reading value to "closeness" and then wired it to a threshold sensor, I could effectively get the kart to detect an impact and detect it within a certain distance. This works great for stationary objects like mines, but fired projectiles don't seem to work. After running some tests, it seems that the way I have the projectile weapon wired (blast sensor attached to a keyed tag) isn't fast enough to account for the speed that the weapon is fired (why this works for mines, I don't know), so that when it impacts, the weapon fails to activate the tag before being destroyed. I can confirm this, because when I apply a tag straight to the weapon itself, it will not register damage if it hits the player but only if it passes by the player. I think I can get around this by making the weapon emit a tagged item when it impacts, giving it enough time for the kart to register the signal. I'm also considering putting up all the code I have in a test-dev form on my planet for others to take a look at. I'm pretty convinced that the map I have in the photos above is just too plain and I've got a ton of new ideas to take a look at with intractable elements and visual effects.

2013-07-31 15:29:00 Author: Hiroshige0 Posts: 114

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(I'm hoping there's enough time/new info to justify a double-post!) Things are full steam ahead again on the project, StJimmysAdiction's suggestion didn't work in the end, but it made me test out a few more theories, and lo and behold, I found a reliable solution for hit detection. That's not the only major update though: 1. Logic has been streamlined and expanded. For instance, certain powerups now have dual effects (healing the user who dropped it but hurting the enemy team), expanded use (randomized output for stealth use) and other minor touches. 2. Lots of rebalancing tweaks to weapons/karts to either help stealth or combat ability. This is definitely going to require some beta testing from others to find and address exploits/imbalance. 3. I've completely redone the original map from an underground military base to an above-ground, Area 51-ish setup with individual buildings to hide and ambush from. 4. I've added 2 new powerup abilities between the two classes: • Venom Mist (Infected) ~ Attacks all enemy players, causing them to become entrapped in goo with slow speed, reduced vision and reflexes for 20 seconds. • MIC-Tracker (Squad) ~ Causes all enemy players to reveal their locations for 20 seconds. 5. The new level layout has allowed some exciting ideas to be used. For instance, sound is a big factor in a level where every shadow could contain a threat, so there will be no music for the majority of the match. Instead, random sound clues and atmospheric affects will be used to keep players on edge and inform then when they are close to the enemy. Another cool thing I'm experimenting with is the use of rooms that "reveal" their interiors when you enter them. 6. I'm running some experiments with a "goal" mechanic, where you have to save (or eat!) scientists that randomly appear on the map and run around screaming. I'm not sure what a bonus for these should be yet (health + points? Some other perk?) Pics are forthcoming, but things are going pretty smoothly! I am excited to try some stuff I've never seen before in LBPK. That is, if I don't run out of thermo first.

2013-08-05 16:38:00 Author: Hiroshige0 Posts: 114

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This is sounding really interesting, lots of pushing the envelope stuff going on with the logic I can tell!

2013-08-05 18:01:00 Author: atheistsw Posts: 147

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